PITTSBURGH — National security, civil rights, and violent crime are three top priorities for federal prosecutors in Western Pennsylvania, but U.S. Attorney David Hickton wants to be sure another, perhaps less obvious, priority doesn’t get lost in the shuffle: school funding corruption.

That’s why Hickton, whose office prosecutes crimes and enforces other federal regulations civilly in 25 counties, has set up a “School Corruption Hotline” believed to be the only one of its kind run by a federal prosecutor in the county. People with information about school funding frauds or abuses can call in and remain anonymous if they choose.

Among other things, Hickton is looking to prosecute the misuse of federal education funds through such crimes as bidding corruption, embezzlement, and kickbacks or other collusion with vendors.

“My belief is the education of our children is a paramount responsibility and we fund that education through tax dollars — mostly property tax dollars at the state level, but there’s a lot of federal money and comes into the schools, too,” Hickton said. “And this is an area of fraud and abuse and public corruption and we want to make a priority of it and focus on it.”

Hickton said there’s no particular circumstance or accusation that has caused him to focus on this relatively narrow target. He just wanted to ensure school funding was covered by the fraud and public corruption section of his office.

Hickton suggested common sense dictates that school funding is likely to be misused by some. “History has shown it’s an area for potential abuse,” Hickton said.